The loss of golfballs from driving ranges poses a severe financial strain on the proprietors of such facilities. The present practice of providing yellow balls for use by customers on golf driving ranges does not act as a sufficient deterrent to the unauthorized removal of the balls by some customers of the range.
Electronic tags have been widely used in merchandizing, to diminish or eliminate pilferage losses.
In most such prior art applications the tags are secured externally to the goods being protected, and customer egress from the area containing the goods is constrained, so as to cause all customers to pass through an electromagnetic monitoring field of predetermined frequency, to which the tag is tuned, and in response to which field the tag emits a detectable electronic signal. In use, the signal is detected, and then used to activate an alarm of one form or another.
A survey of the prior art has disclosed a range of applications of electronic tag technology, as disclosed in the following listed U.S. Pat. No. 4,727,360 Ferguson et al February 1988; U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,940 Siikarla July 1991; U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,941 Lizzi July 1991; U.S. Pat. No. 5,051,726 Copeland et al September 1991; U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,950 Perchak October 1991; U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,112 Piotrowski et al January 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,225 Narlow et al March 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,228 individual March 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,210 Checkpoint April 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,217 Siikarla et al April 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,106 Kataria et al June 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,684 . . . September 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,431 Piccoli et al January 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,118 Drucker et al July 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,011 Wheeler et al October 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 5,401,026 Eccher et al March 1995.